Christopher & Banks launches virtual “Style Me” Interactive Platform

MINNEAPOLIS, Jan. 24, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- iMedia Brands, Inc. (“iMedia”) (Nasdaq: IMBI) announces its significant progress in leveraging ShopHQ to accelerate the relaunch of the iconic 65-year-old Christopher & Banks brand (“C&B”) in the United States.

“In less than nine months, C&B has become the fastest growing fashion brand on ShopHQ,” said Tim Peterman, iMedia’s CEO. “This national television awareness has enabled us to launch an interactive C&B personalized styling service on christopherandbanks.com. It has driven the launch of the first-ever C&B direct-to-consumer catalog and it has supported the reopening of five C&B retail stores. Our progress to re-engage C&B’s 1.5 million passionate customers continues to gain momentum.”

ShopHQ, iMedia’s flagship television network distributed to over 80 million homes in the United States, has aired over 100 hours of C&B programming year-to-date because C&B’s sales performance continues to be category leading for the network. C&B sales on ShopHQ tripled from Q2 to Q3 and are on pace to double from Q3 to Q4, establishing it as the fastest growing fashion brand on ShopHQ.

C&B’s “Style Me” virtual stylist program is an interactive platform hosted by SalesFloor, which launched on christopherandbanks.com on January 4, 2022. The program is led by Kim Decker, who has been with C&B for over 40 years and is also C&B’s brand ambassador on ShopHQ. Ms. Decker operates the “Style Me” interactive platform with six C&B virtual stylists, all of whom are previous top C&B retail store managers, to engage one-on-one with customers via chat, email, and text to help customers personalize outfits.

C&B’s brick and mortar retail stores continue to be an important part of C&B’s omni-channel strategy. C&B successfully opened three new retail stores in November in Fort Wayne, Indiana; Canton, Ohio; and Greensburg, Pennsylvania. These locations were selected because each were strong performing C&B retail stores previously. These launches were driven by the two successful C&B retail store relaunches in May in Branson, Missouri and Coon Rapids, Minnesota.

C&B mailed its first-ever direct-to-consumer catalog in October, and it was well received by C&B customers, particularly those C&B customers who used to enjoy a C&B retail store in their town. C&B followed up this successful initial catalog mailing with an additional catalog offer in November for the holiday season.

About Christopher & Banks

C&B (christopherandbanks.com) was founded in 1956 and is a brand that specializes in offering women’s value-priced apparel and accessories that cater to women of all sizes, from petite to missy to plus sizes. Its internally designed, modern and comfortable apparel and accessories provide customers with an exclusive experience. The brand was acquired by iMedia in March 2021.

About iMedia Brands, Inc.

iMedia Brands, Inc. (Nasdaq: IMBI) is a leading interactive media company capitalizing on the convergence of entertainment, ecommerce, and advertising. The company owns a growing, global portfolio of entertainment, consumer brands and media commerce services businesses that cross promote and exchange data with each other to optimize their consumer engagement experiences and to position the company as the leading single-source partner to television advertisers and consumer brands seeking to entertain and transact with customers.

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Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995

This document may contain certain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any statements contained herein that are not statements of historical fact, including statements regarding the expected impact of COVID-19 on television retailing are forward-looking. The Company often use words such as anticipates, believes, estimates, expects, intends, seeks, predicts, hopes, should, plans, will and similar expressions to identify forward-looking statements. These statements are based on management's current expectations and accordingly are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances. Actual results may vary materially from the expectations contained herein due to various important factors, including (but not limited to): variability in consumer preferences, shopping behaviors, spending and debt levels; the general economic and credit environment, including COVID-19; interest rates; seasonal variations in consumer purchasing activities; the ability to achieve the most effective product category mixes to maximize sales and margin objectives; competitive pressures on sales and sales promotions; pricing and gross sales margins; the level of cable and satellite distribution for the Company’s programming and the associated fees or estimated cost savings from contract renegotiations; the Company’s ability to establish and maintain acceptable commercial terms with third-party vendors and other third parties with whom the Company has contractual relationships, and to successfully manage key vendor and shipping relationships and develop key partnerships and proprietary and exclusive brands; the ability to manage operating expenses successfully and the Company’s working capital levels; the ability to remain compliant with the Company’s credit facilities covenants; customer acceptance of the Company’s branding strategy and its repositioning as a video commerce Company; the ability to respond to changes in consumer shopping patterns and preferences, and changes in technology and consumer viewing patterns; changes to the Company’s management and information systems infrastructure; challenges to the Company’s data and information security; changes in governmental or regulatory requirements; including without limitation, regulations of the Federal Communications Commission and Federal Trade Commission, and adverse outcomes from regulatory proceedings; litigation or governmental proceedings affecting the Company’s operations; significant events (including disasters, weather events or events attracting significant television coverage) that either cause an interruption of television coverage or that divert viewership from its programming; disruptions in the Company’s distribution of its network broadcast to customers; the Company’s ability to protect its intellectual property rights; our ability to obtain and retain key executives and employees; the Company’s ability to attract new customers and retain existing customers; changes in shipping costs; expenses related to the actions of activist or hostile shareholders; the Company’s ability to offer new or innovative products and customer acceptance of the same; changes in customer viewing habits of television programming; and the risks identified under Item 1A(Risk Factors) in the Company’s most recently filed Form 10-K and any additional risk factors identified in its periodic reports since the date of such Form 10-K. More detailed information about those factors is set forth in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, and current reports on Form 8-K. Investors are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this announcement. The Company is under no obligation (and expressly disclaim any such obligation) to update or alter its forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Source: iMedia Brands, Inc.

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